By Clayton Murphy and Emma White | UM Legislative News Service, University of Montana School of Journalism

Legislation Would Protect Private Water Rights on State Land and Sell Off Landlocked State Parcels

HELENA — A bill protecting landowners from state seizure of private water rights on state lands has begun debate in the Senate, but not without concerns about school funding, water rights cases and public land access.

 Speaker of the House Brandon Ler, R-Savage, brought his House Bill 676 to the Senate Judiciary Committee after a series of tight votes in the House.

Ler’s bill would prohibit the state land board from seizing private water rights used to irrigate or otherwise service state-owned, leased land. The bill would also mandate the sale of publicly inaccessible state land and dissolve the state water court in five years.

Jocelyn Cahill with the Senior Ag Water Rights Alliance supported the bill and said ranchers could be scared off from using their water rights on state land in fear of seizure.

“ When ranchers stop improving their lease lands, the state leases and the school trusts that rely on them lose out on significant benefits,” Cahill said. “If this frustration continues, more ranchers will opt out of leasing state land altogether.”

Brian Thompson with the Senior Water Rights Coalition said his main concern with the bill is the termination of the water court. The court was established in 1979 to make decisions on more than 240,000 state water rights claims. 

But Thompson said abruptly ending this process, possibly before the work is done, could cause serious fallout.

“This is a system and a process that we set in place many decades ago,” Thompson said. “A lot of people’s water rights are dependent upon this system. They’ve invested in this system. They’re counting on this system to continue and to work and to protect their rights into the future.”

Other opponents said they worried about the impacts on the education funding that comes from state-owned lands and the required sale of state lands, saying the legislature should instead focus on ways to provide access to the nearly 1.5 million inaccessible acres.

-By Clayton Murphy

Lawmakers Consider Offering Expanding Free School Lunch Eligibility

HELENA — A bill in the Legislature would offer free school breakfast and lunch to all students who qualify for reduced meals. Supporters say it would offer critical help for children as grocery prices increase and food security becomes scarcer for families.

Kim Popham,  Director of Public Policy and Research for the Montana Federation of Public Employees, urged the House Education Committee to support House Bill 551 during the bill’s initial hearing last week.

“In this committee, many of you often bring up the fact that our test scores are low, but let me remind you that if students don’t have enough to eat, they cannot learn,” Popham said. “ Food insecurity has been an issue for a long time, but now more than ever, families are feeling the pinch due to inflation and rising costs.”

According to data from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, more than 45 percent of Montana public school students were eligible for free or reduced-price school meals in the 2023-24 school year. 

Other proponents cited the learning benefits that come with full, healthy meals. Some also spoke of the pain they felt collecting debts from parents who had fallen behind on lunch payments.

Alissa Snow, representing the Blackfeet Tribe, the Fort Belknap Indian Community, and the Chippewa Cree Tribes of Rocky Boy supports the bill.

“School meals are often a child’s most nutritious meal of the day, providing essential nutrients that may be lacking in their home environment,” Snow said. “Especially in homes that are low-income and struggling to make ends meet.”

Rep. Melissa Romano, D-Helena, is carrying House Bill 551, which drew no opponents at it’s hearing in the House. She said it’s a renewed effort of a bill that failed in committee last session.

-By Clayton Murphy

Legislation Would Mandate Insurance Coverage of Mental Health Screenings

HELENA — Montanans could have access to fully insured mental health screenings if a bill working its way through the Legislature passes.

Sen. Mike Yakawich, R-Billings, is carrying Senate Bill 244, which would mandate insurance coverage for standardized, evidence-based behavioral health screenings and assessments. The Senate passed the bill on a 40-8 vote last month and it is now up for debate in the House. 

At a hearing in the House Business and Labor Committee last week, proponents, mainly healthcare providers and hospital representatives, urged the committee’s support of the bill.

JJ Carmody with Billings Clinic-Logan Health told the committee these screenings can help identify worrying symptoms early and lead to necessary mental health care.

“ We’ve had many patients that had initially screened positive but after seeing the cost on their bill, they declined further screenings,” Carmody said. “This limits the ability to concretely monitor symptoms over time.”

Yakawich said insurance companies seem to be happy to cover the costs, attributing the support to avoiding further, more intense costs down the road. But he also said he believes they think this is just good policy.

The hearing drew one opponent: Steven Pierce of the Citizen’s Commission of Human Rights, a self-described psychiatric watchdog organization co-founded by the Church of Scientology. 

“ It should be on an as-need basis, and it shouldn’t be universal, because the results will, will actually be detrimental to people who don’t need the treatment, who will be taking them the treatment route, and it will be a detriment to their health,” Pierce said.

The House committee has not yet taken action on SB 244. Yakawich is also carrying two suicide prevention bills, Senate Bills 95 and 369. Both are still awaiting additional hearings.

-By Clayton Murphy

Bills Would Extend Wolf Hunting Season and Allow for Infrared and Thermal Imagery 

HELENA — A Senate Fish and Game Committee meeting last week was dedicated entirely to three hours of fiery debate on two controversial gray wolf management bills from Rep. Paul Fielder, R-Thompson Falls.

House Bill 258 would extend the seven-month wolf hunting season by another three months and House Bill 259 would legalize infrared and thermal imagery for wolf management.

Fish, Wildlife and Parks Chief of Conservation Policy Quentin Kujala, speaking for the department director, opposed the season’s extension into spring.

“A spring hunting season during denning periods could result in undocumented and indirect mortalities of pups if the lactating female is killed, as well as direct hunting mortality of pups,” Kujala said. “Indirect mortality of pups could also result from increased harvests of other pack wolves at and near den locations.”

Kujala was among more than 40 opponents to the bill, compared with eight proponents. Proponents cited wolf-related livestock, elk and deer deaths as reasons to support the bill, saying the FWP needs more tools to maintain wildlife populations.

The House amended the season extension bill last month to set a 15-mile boundary around national parks, a motion that passed near-unanimously. But Fielder is working to remove that amendment, a decision that will ultimately be left up to the Senate committee.

House Bill 259 attracted many of the same proponents and opponents to testify.

Kris Killorn with Safari Club International supported the thermal optics bill, saying he sees it as a simple cleanup of prior legislation.

“I remember when it was first passed, night vision was understood as being anything that could see at night. So they thought thermals and all that was in there,” Killorn said. “ We need to add these tools because as our wolves get smarter, they are more nocturnal, just like a lot of animals are.”

But opponents continued to protest what they see as an extended privilege given to wolf hunters, which one conservation lobbyist called a “weapon in the crusade to eradicate wolves from Montana.”

Another effort from Rep. Shannon Maness, R-Dillon, for an unlimited wolf hunting quota when the population is above 550, is also being heard in the Senate. Rep. Jamie Islay, D-Bozeman, carried a bill to classify wolves as furbearers in an attempt to provide more legal sideboards to their harvest, but the bill missed a key deadline and has died.

Panel Tables Bill Writing Psychological Screening at Detention Centers into State Law

HELENA — A panel of lawmakers have tabled a bill that was an effort to protect prisoners’ constitutional rights to due process by adding enhanced access to psychological care in detention centers to state law.

Rep. James Reavis, D-Billings, said the 14th Amendment requires “fitness to proceed” — meaning those charged with a crime must be able to understand what they are being accused of and that was the reason for his House Bill 236. 

Reavis said current law only includes psychological screening at one in-person facility in the state.

“And that was creating a really big backlog,” Reavis said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. “So what the department started doing a couple of years ago that’s been really helpful is they’ve started opening up the process a little bit.”

Some facilities have started bringing in outside psychiatric care, a process that has helped the backlog but is not yet codified in state law. The bill would also include online ”telehealth” consultations.

Senator and Judiciary Committee Chairman Barry Usher, R-Yellowstone County, had several questions at the hearing March 17 about how the bill would work.

“ The biggest issue has been trying to get enough psychiatrists on the list in most jurisdictions,” Usher said. “The question is, why do we need this bill if we’re already doing this through rule?”

Reavis said HB 236 would set these practices in stone and create sideboards for any future legislation. 

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 5-0 to table the bill after it passed the House on wide margins last month.

-By Clayton Murphy

Pet Insurance Bill Passes Senate, Moves to Governor’s Office

A bill to regulate pet insurance passed the Senate this week, with supporters saying it will help regulate and standardize the industry to protect consumers.

Pet insurance, according to Sen. Gregg Hunter, R-Glasgow, who carried House Bill 78 through the Senate, is one of the fastest growing insurance industries. HB 78 would create a “comprehensive legal framework” to regulate the industry with the goal of protecting consumers.

“The key objectives of this bill is transparency to ensure consumers have a clear understanding of what pet insurance covers and excludes, consumer protection with introducing safeguards to protect policyholders from misleading practices or lack of information and accountability,” Hunter said. “It requires training for insurance producers, to clear documentations from insurers.”

But opponents argue this will raise the cost of veterinary care for Montanans who don’t purchase pet insurance. Senate Majority Leader Tom McGillvray, R-Billings, said historically what health insurance has done is make the cost of medical care much less affordable for people.

“My concern is this is just going to jack up the prices of veterinary care for our pets,” McGillvray said. “And I hate to tell you, but probably ten years from now you’ll remember what the previous senators said and what I’m saying, and you’ll say, ‘He told you so.’”

-By Emma White

Clayton Murphy and Emma White are reporters with the UM Legislative News Service, a partnership of the University of Montana School of Journalism, the Montana Broadcasters Association, the Montana Newspaper Association and the Greater Montana Foundation. Murphy can be reached at clayton.murphy@umconnect.umt.edu. White can be reached at emma.white@umconnect.umt.edu.